VIII. Women and the Environment
The Chinese government has continuously tried to optimize women's living and
development environment, to bring their role into full play in protecting and
improving the environment, and to enable women to live and develop in a sound
environment.
Formulating a strategic goal for women to participate in sustainable
development. In accordance with China's Agenda 21 and the requirement for
reaching the goal of the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women,
governments at all levels have actively encouraged women's participation in
scientific research, evaluation, planning, designing, supervision and management
of the environment. At present, quite a number of women are serving in
departments related to environmental protection at various levels, some even
taking leading positions, with about 30 percent of environmental monitoring and
law-enforcement officials in the country being female. The state encourages
women to take an active part in non-governmentally organized environmental
protection activities. With the support of the government, the All-China Women's
Federation has waged social mobilization and publicity campaigns, such as the
March 8 Green Project, which involves over 100 million women volunteers a year
in tree planting, shelterbelt construction and small drainage area control. In
1999, the All-China Women's Federation won the Global 500 Award of the United
Nations Environment Program. In addition, some environmental protection NGOs
initiated and participated in by women have urged enterprises to assume more
social responsibilities, promoted green production and lifestyle, and played an
active role in training and mobilizing the public to participate in
environmental protection.
Protecting and improving the natural and living conditions for women's
subsistence and development. In the past decade, with marked improvement in
living conditions for both urban and rural residents, the average housing space
and greenbelt area per person have increased by a large margin. The building and
opening of many cultural, sport and recreational facilities has resulted in more
public space for women and created favorable conditions for them to improve
their quality of life. In recent years, the government has made great efforts to
upgrade public toilets and water sewage treatment, and raise the rate of use of
tap water and sanitary toilets in rural areas. From 2001 to 2004, the central
government earmarked 9.7 billion yuan to solve the problem of drinking water for
rural residents, providing safe drinking water for an average of 6.9 million
rural women a year. In 2004, as many as 53.1 percent of rural households in
China had access to sanitary toilets. The sanitary disposal rate of night soil
in rural areas rose quickly from 28.5 percent in 1998 to 57.5 percent in 2004.
The upgrading of public toilets and sewage facilities has eased the heavy burden
of many rural women to carry water, and reduced health hazards for them and
their family members, thus effectively improving their living and development
conditions.
Actively creating a social environment conducive to gender equality and
women's development, and gradually eliminating social prejudice, discrimination
and suppression of women. The state has strengthened its publicity work
concerning the basic national policy of gender equality. Officials in charge of
government departments concerned and leaders of provinces (autonomous regions
and municipalities directly under the central government) have published
articles in the central and local mass media to expound the importance of gender
equality for social development, and confirm women's role and contributions to
the economy and all social sectors. A large number of programs and reports
promoting gender equality and women's rights and interests, and showing women's
talents, have been published, shown and broadcast in newspapers and on TV and
radio programs. Besides, the government supports women's organizations to
cooperate with the mass media in running programs to demonstrate women's
functions in and contributions to social and economic development, and
encourages them to use and attain access to information resources. With the wide
application of the Internet in China, many women organizations have created
their own websites, which have become an important means to publicize the idea
of gender equality and promote women's development.
